By ÃÂlvaro Neder
What is Jazz? Ok, you've heard that question before.
But do you think Brazilian samba rhythm over complex harmonies and improvisation can be described as "jazz"? And how about Central America's rhythms?
If not, why?
Do you believe North-American jazz has had Cuban influences since its beginning?
It can be proved.
How could the music of any America deeply penetrate each other in a time with no radio or TV?
The international commerce provided the means for cultural interchanging between the New World colonies through merchant navigation.
A New Vision:
Jazz can be seen as fruit of the combination of the countries of three Americas' cultures that had used the black slave, added to the European musical tradition.
The instrumental music which emerged naturally from each of these countries has several things in common: particular, ethnic rhythms from African origin, melted with the diverse multicultural background of the New World; African tradition of joyful improvisation; and European music, both popular and erudite, as the basis of the harmony and melody.
The result is a product which (nevertheless its idiosyncrasies due to particular approaches in rhythm) is unitary in its most characteristic features.
Although its undeniable similarities, nationalistic concerns in each of the involved countries prevent us to share and enjoy this Music of the Three Americas simply as jazz.
I understand it's time to cast a rather integrative look at jazz. Reckoned as music which was born from the excluded, it is now used by people as an instrument for exclusion.
Central America's influences over North-American jazz:
The three major cities in the slave trade route in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th century were Salvador, Brazil (slavery was introduced into Brazil long before North America, between 1530 and 1549); Havana, Cuba and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Africans who had been sold into slavery landed at these ports carrying with them the culture polyrhythms. These cities developed strong musical traditions and a core of venues in which the artists could ply their trade. Holidays particular those of religious origin like Carnival and Mardi Gras, provided opportunities for early descendants of African slave to recreate the rituals, ceremonies, songs and dances that had survived the Diaspora.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who wrote the Afro-American influenced song "La Bamboula" in 1847, traveled to Cuba in 1854 and wrote his first composition with Afro-Cuban influence. Returning to New Orleans in 1855 he wrote another Afro-Cuban influence song "Maria la O". There was a maritime route that linked the two ports of Havana and New Orleans. At the time, there was jazz in Havana and rumba in New Orleans. In other words, in 1890 there were ideas circulating among Afro-Americans and Afro-Cuban musicians, musical exchanges which helped shape our respective 20th century culture.
Many don't associate Jazz with the ending of Slavery in Cuba, between 1880 and 1889, and the massive immigration of Black Cubans, free but jobless, to places like New Orleans. Evidence exists that the arpeggios in the montuno section of Afro-Cuban rhythms were exploited in the music of ragtime by composers Scott Joplin, Louis Chauvin, Artie Matthews, and Neil Moret. Even W.C. Handy incorporated the rhythm in the second section of his seminal composition, "St. Louis Blues".
Brazil's influences over North-American jazz:
There are striking resemblance between the ragtime and the Brazilian genre called Choro. The Choro can be traced as an playing form as early as 1850 in Brazil. Basically it was European popular dances (mazurkas, schotisches, valses) played in a Brazilian instrumental, improvised context, with our rhythms; and our instruments, in addition to the European ones.
AnÃÂbal Augusto Sardinha (Garoto) was a very talented Brazilian guitar player. In 1938 he began working for Mayrink Veiga Radio Station (in Brazil) which had Carmen Miranda and Laurindo de Almeida in its cast. With Laurindo, who later turned to be a famous jazz artist and soundtrack composer in USA, he formed the "Duo of the Syncopated Rhythm" and group "Cordas Quentes" (Hot Strings).
Carmen Miranda, at the time a hugely successful singer in Brazil, was brought to USA by Lee Schubert in 1939. Her first appearance was, of all places, in Boston. Carmen soon became one of the most popular artists in the US, acting in films, appearing on television and dazzling them on the stages of Las Vegas.
Later that year Carmen Miranda wrote to Garoto and invited him to come to the U.S. In October of 1939 Garoto left for the U.S. The organist, Jesse Crawford, called Garoto "The man of golden fingers". He became an extra attraction.
While Carmen attracted a large audience avid to find out what the Bahiana got, a different audience made of big names of the jazz scene and its adepts also came to the concerts marveled by a young modern and virtuoso musician who came from a distant land.
After Carmen's show, Garoto would perform a solo set. His ability at the instrument and personal style while interpreting the Sambas and Choros was what he needed to project himself. Duke Ellington and Art Tatum were among the regulars in the audience. Crowning a successful tour through several USA cities, Garoto ended it performing at the White House for president Roosevelt. At least from then on, one can prove Brazilian influence over North-American jazz music.
Some more recent influences of Brazilian music over North-American jazz:
- Milt Jackson "Bossa Nova Do Marilla"
- Connie Francis "Bossa Nova Hand Dance"
- Elvis Presley "Bossa Nova Baby"
- Dave Brubeck "Bossa Nova USA"
- Quincy Jones "Bossa Nova USA"
- Red Holloway "Bossa Nova West"
- Helen O'Connell "Brazil"
- Grant Green "Brazil"
- Frank Sinatra "Brazil"
- Jimmy Dorsey "Brazil"
- Art Pepper "Brazil"
- Barry White "Rio de Janeiro"
- Ray Conniff "Brazil Reprise"
- John Coltrane "Brazilia"
- Lena Horne "Brazilian Boogie"
- Nat King Cole "Brazilian Love Song"
- Grover Washington Jr. "Brazilian Memories"
- Earth Wind and Fire "Brazilian Rhyme"
- George Benson "Brazillian Stomp"
- Gilberto/Turrentine "Brazilian Tapestry"
- Ramsey Lewis "Brazilica"
In light of such facts, it's pertinent to conclude that, regarding Jazz (seen here as a blend of European musical tradition with the African ancestry music developed in the multicultural Americas based on improvisation and lively rhythms), the New World must have be seen as a whole, because it evolved as a whole, continually exchanging cultural data.
Let us understand this transcendental music of three Americas as one only. Equal origins, reciprocal influences, everything contributing to the creation of a powerfully rich and particular synthesis, that is today is regarded as the most creative music in the entire world.
"Jazz" is the word which better translates and synthesizes all this extensive definition regarding the more sophisticated, improvised music of the Three Americas. However, it is unlikely that it is accepted, due to nationalistic resistance of each implicated country. It does not matter, since the Music of Three Americas is understood as an organic and self dependent whole, never self-sufficient or xenophobe.
The only thing that disunite the musicians and listeners of these countries are the political and ideological barriers. Because musically we are embraced.
I hope someday to see Music translate itself in all the aspects of Life.
Read up on what others are saying about Alvaros' paper...
Contributors include El Tumbao, Cuban; Ed Lewis, North-American; and Alvaro Neder, Brazilian.
